Finalized
by SoullessElric
Summary: It had been years since the fall of Amestris and all that it stood for. Alchemy is dead, but in its place, a new art has formed: magic. Edward Elric, the Last Amestrian, and Harry Potter, the Boy who Lived, will have to work together to reach both of their goals. However, the dark secret Edward keeps may destroy the both of them.
1. Chapter One

**_Finalized –_ Chapter One**

_I'm wearing my awesome flamel shirt today, I just HAD to take a risk. :grin:  
_

_:gasp: It's the dreaded Harry Potter Crossover! I'm sorry, I had to. This idea has been eating itself for months now. :laugh: But, my children, this is not cliche, I promise. You will see._

_There's one thing I want to ask of you, whoever reads this. I would like help choosing which house fits Ed best. So far it's undecided, so if you want to get your opinions out, do it now. It's not going to be a vote, but it will influence my decision, especially if you explain (oh, I just chased away reviewers. Oops. :laugh:)._

_Disclaimer: _Fullmetal Alchemist_ and _Harry Potter_ do not belong to me. _Several Arrows Later_ does not belong to me._

* * *

**( 1 )**

**-[ Perplexing ]-**

_I am listening  
I'm hearing every single word  
I see breath and sighs and changing minds  
I told myself not to remind me of the things I could've been  
I told myself not to remind me  
_

* * *

Recently he had started letting his hair grow out again. For a while now, he had left it short, and for several reasons. One was so that he would attract less attention. Someone who looked to be 12 living by himself was already strange, he didn't need to add to that with his already uncommon appearances.

The second was because it reminded him too much of _that day_. The Promised Day. The day his entire life had been taken from him.

He sighed as he pulled the overused black hair tie off of his wrist. He bundled his hair into a short ponytail that hung above his shoulders. It wasn't long enough yet to pull into a higher ponytail, but it was getting to be a hassle to leave it down, as it constantly tickled the back of his neck.

He pushed against the ground with his automail leg, sending the rusty swing he was sitting on rocking slightly, a loud creaking shooting through the air. One creak was followed by another, and another, each one softer and shorter, fading off into nothing. He was alone again, with only the voices crowding his mind to fill the silence.

Then there was another noise, the clacking of small wheels rolling across slabs of concrete. Edward slipped off the swings with practiced agility, darting behind a nearby slide to spy on the approaching stranger. By the sound of the wheels and the now easily detectable panting, the person was fairly young and dragging a large case behind him. Anything odd was worth investigating.

And this definitely qualified as odd.

A boy who looked to be about 14 or so, with a thin frame and average height came into view. He had short black hair, and round glasses over his bright green eyes. He was the one dragging the trunk, and it was obvious that he was having trouble with it.

Suddenly, Edward heard the creak of the swings again, and a growling came from behind him somewhere. The stranger apparently heard it too, and he whipped around to see where the noise was coming from. His eyes fell slightly to Ed's right, towards a clump of bushes. Ed glanced towards where the boy was staring, and caught a glimpse of bright eyes before his attention was dragged back towards the street. The boy had fallen back onto the curb, and a gigantic purple bus had stopped in front of him.

The growling had stopped, Ed noted, filing that away as a problem to worry about later.

A slightly scruffy looking man stepped out of the back of the bus and started talking to the boy.

Even though they should've been within hearing range, Ed couldn't hear any of their conversation. Confused, he picked up a small, dried leaf, and rubbed it gently next to his ear. The crackling rang loud and clear, so that crossed out the possibility of temporary deafness, however unlikely that may have been.

They definitely should have been audible, and by the movements of their mouths Ed could tell that they were both talking in a normal voice. There didn't seem to be any substance between them and Ed, and there wouldn't have been a chance to place it there since Ed had arrived at the park.

It couldn't have been alchemy, since no one here seemed to practice it anymore. He'd never heard of alchemy that could mess around with sound waves anyways, though he held on to the idea to research later.

None of the solutions that Ed had thought up could explain the situation. He was about to just give up and walk over there and _ask_ when the boy was herded onto the bus and it... disappeared.

It didn't "disappear" as in "drive away quickly," it just... wasn't _there _anymore.

"Okay, _what_?" were the only words that could escape Ed's hanging jaw. He just stood there, staring, for a few minutes before he had the sense to go over there and investigate.

He tugged the sleeves of his black shirt down farther over his gloves self-consciously as he came out from behind the slide. He glanced around for watchful adults as he walked towards the street. When one was alone, and in a 12 year old body, one tended to attract a fair amount of concerned parents asking him if he was lost.

In Resembool, it hadn't been that uncommon to let older children roam free for the most part. Apparently, that wasn't the way things worked here.

But, if that was true, why was the young teen walking around with such a large trunk?

He stepped off of the curb, checked for approaching vehicles, and started feeling around on the ground. There had to be a logical explanation, whether or not the whole thing was real or a figment of his imagination. Worst case scenario, he had been drugged somehow, and seeing strange teenagers and three story, technicolor busses was a side effect. Hopefully, it had just been some sort of weird prank, and the area around it would be rigged with what caused the weird occurrence.

But he found nothing abnormal about the street or the places around it. He finished in the middle of the street, the cracked asphalt just as dirty as normal.

He sat back on his heels and sighed. It wouldn't have worked, he shouldn't try... Oh a whim, he closed his eyes and sent a tendril of he soul into the air around him. He bit his lip, trying to control the tendril enough to sense any energy around him.

At first, there was nothing, ans he silently berated himself for even thinking about the possibility. But then- there!- he found something.

It felt like trace amounts of alchemy, but it was a little different.

Ed's eyes snapped open only to see the headlights of the car heading straight for him. He heard the screeching of tires, and barely had the time to bring his automail up to protect his head before it slammed into him.

He hit the asphalt hard a skidded, his left side taking most of the damage. He heard two car doors slam and two sets of footsteps ran towards him.

"Oh my god!" a feminine voice shouted as she knelt down next to his still form.

"Honey, are you okay?"

Of _course _he wasn't! He looked up towards their blurry faces and tried to sit up, letting out a groan.

"Molly, we need to take him to a hospital!" the man said. Ed belatedly noticed that both of them sported bright orange hair, even more vivid than his own golden blond.

He grabbed the woman's wrist, glaring intensely into her wide eyes.

"No hospitals," he said, voice sharp and cold. Screw the helpless child act.

"No, you _need _medical attention." the man said, already going to pick him up.

"_No. Hospitals_!" Edward shouted, scooting away shakily, wincing as he did so.

"Arthur... Arthur, look at this!" the woman said, pointing to Ed's left leg.

"Damn it..." Edward hissed as his vision started to tunnel, realizing that his pant leg had ripped, showing the scratched metal underneath.

As his hearing started to fade out, he heard the woman say one last thing.

"Maybe we should..."

Then the black at the edges of his vision closed in, and he fell back to the asphalt.


	2. Chapter Two

**_Finalized - _Chapter Two**

_Well then. I'm in the car on the way back from my family's vacation, and I figured I owed y'all a chapter. I'm in kind of a bad mood, 'cause there's a possibility that my baby brother is having an allergic reaction… I'm pretty sure he's not, he gets rashes all the time, but it's still freaking me out. I'm trying to ignore it, so I'm just sitting next to him, typing and listening to depressing Three Days Grace music. I'm listening to Pain right now, anyone know it?_

_If Ed seems OOC, it's on purpose. He's lost everything he used to know, and it's been years since then. The Promised Day was in the August of 1915, and it's 1993 in the story. (I actually did research on solar eclipses and the timelines of both Fullmetal Alchemist and Harry Potter. I felt so accomplished afterwards :laughs: (actually, I think I got the HP timeline wrong. Does anyone know what year it is when he's 13?)) He's bound to have changed. He'll get better later, trust me._

_[Edit] Well, it's a week later, 11:24 at night, and I suddenly got an inspiration. :rolls eyes: So I thought, hey, why not finish this chapter up for my poor deprived readers?_

_[Another Edit] ...Oh my shit. I'm so sorry you guys. I'll try to finish this now. :cries:_

_[Yet Another Edit] …...I'M SORRY THIS IS SO SHORT GUYS.  
_

_Anyways, 29 reviews?! I love you all so much! Special thanks to everyone who reviewed! :big grin:_

Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist does not belong to me. Dead End Countdown does not belong to me.

* * *

**( 2 )**

**-[ Deception ]-**

_Don't stand by_

_If you don't like what you see_

_So unsatisfied_

_No, I won't take what you said to me_

* * *

"Hey John, look at this."

"What is it?"

"A new trace showed up."

"So…?"

"The kid's twelve."

"What?! That's supposed to activate when they're born!"

"Do you think I'm stupid, that's why I called you over for it!"

"Fine. What do you think it means?"

"Maybe something just went wrong with the spell."

"I guess. We'll have to call someone in about it later."

"Yeah, I'll try to remember to do that. Could you send an owl to Hogwarts? Just tell them we have a late applicant."

"Sure thing. You sure you can stay here by yourself?"

"Alright, that joke was over a long time ago!"

"Yeah, sure. See you later."

"You too."

* * *

Ed opened his eyes, blinking a few times to bring the world into focus. The mass of dull blurry colors swirled around him, causing him to bring his hand to his forehead out of habit. He was fully expecting to see the faded white ceiling of a hospital, but was pleasantly surprised with a creamy color similar to that of his own ceilings. Wait. He blinked again, glancing slightly to the left to see if he could spot the familiar edging in his living room, startling slightly when he found them.

"What…?" he whispered, trying to sit up. He halted with a hiss when an ache made itself known in his side, reminding him of the crash again. He looked himself over, searching for any sort of bandages or the like. He didn't find any, but noticed that someone had changed his clothes and put him on his couch while he was sleeping.

His ribs felt sore, but not broken. It was almost as if they had started healing already, but he knew that wasn't possible. Maybe they hadn't been broken after all? No, he would've been able to tell. Was he out longer than he thought?

He had just started getting into the more complicated solutions when a woman walked into the room, her bright orange hair bouncing merrily around her shoulders. A small "oh" of surprise escaped her lips when she noticed the boy staring at her, and the bowl of soup in her hands nearly fell to the waiting floor below. She managed to steady herself just in time, and her mouth turned up in a reassuring smile.

To Ed, it was anything but that. The way it opened slightly on one side, the way the skin under her green eyes crinkled up a little bit… It was the exact same smile that his mother had always made, even on her deathbed.

It was then that he realized that this woman was in his house. His brow sunk lower as his face twisted into a look of pure rage.

"How the hell did you know where my house is?!" he yelled, ignoring the growing pains from his side. The eerie smile turned into a stunned expression, its owner's eyes widening. Just as she was about to answer him, the door to his kitchen burst open, the red-haired man from earlier was in the room too. Ed pushed himself the rest of the way off of the couch and fell into a familiar fighting stance, his right arm resting slightly in front of his left.

The man's hand was resting inside his pocket, obviously gripping a weapon of some kind. Ed kept his eyes fixed on that pocket, only shooting glances toward the woman.

"Calm down. I'm Arthur," he said, gesturing towards himself, "We're not your enemies."

That did nothing to deter Ed from his suspicions. His expression became even more furious, if that was even possible at that point.

"How do I know I can trust you?!" He screeched at them, shifting a little farther away from the advancing couple. The woman looked as if she was about to answer, but the man- Arthur, was it?- spoke first, raising his hands over his head to show that he was unarmed.

"We're not trying-"

"Like hell you're not!"

"I'm trying to tell you-"

"I don't care about-!"

"Why you-!"

It briefly ran through Ed's mind that the argument was growing more childish with each passing yell, but he was reveling at the feel of the quarrel too much to put it to a stop; he didn't really care about the situation at this point. It had been so long since he'd just had a good disagreement...

"Will both of you shut up!" The woman finally screeched, shocking the squabbling men into silence. Both looked at her with slightly shocked expressions, mouths hanging slightly open. She turned towards Arthur, a look of rage on her face.

"You! You're a grown man! I've put up with your childish habits before, but this is crossing the line! You are yelling at a 12 year old child who's just been hit by a car!" Edward let a look of annoyance flash across his face as he recognized the dismissal of his maturity, however much it was lacking at the moment. It seemed as if he'd accidentally slipped into his bratty child mindset, the one he tried to use when around other people. The woman's voice shocked him right out of it as she turned to him.

"We're trying to help you. Please let us, you can trust us adults."

His head fell towards his chest as yet another painful reminder lodged itself in his mind. He sat back down on the couch behind him, wincing slightly at his throbbing side.

"...Fine. Do what you want." He mumbled, keeping his eyes firmly fixed to the floor in front of him.

"Could I take a look at your side, sweetie?" The woman said, bending down in front of him. Ed lifted the edge of his shirt with a grumble, still not making eye contact with either of them. He could feel the man staring at the bottom of his shoulder port, but did nothing to deter him from it. They'd obviously already seen his leg at the very least, it wasn't like one more limb was anything else to them.

It took him a minute to notice that the woman was mumbling to herself as she looked at his torso, but al he could make out was something along the lines of "seems to...nicely...should..." It may very well have been something completely different though, he wasn't sure.

She suddenly moved away slightly and looked up at him. He briefly caught himself glancing at her face before he turned his head away entirely, instead taking up interest in the couch cushions as his shirt fell back down over his thin frame.

"I'm Molly."

He couldn't help but look upwards with a jerk at the sudden introduction. She looked at him expectantly, sighing a bit when he apparently didn't get the message.

"What's your name?" She smiled at him, still leaning down to be at his current eye level.

"...Ed."


End file.
